VHP blasts Left leaders for belittling pushkaralu

Chiding leaders of Communist parties for calling upon people not to take a dip in Godavari river during Pushkaralu, -Telangana unit of Vishwa Hindu Parishad has termed the Reds’ advice as unfortunate and meaningless.

Speaking to the media at VHP office here on Monday, VHP-Telangana Unit president M Ramaraju alleged that the Communist leaders, who criticized Telangana and AP governments for allotting several crores of rupees for the “mute stones” instead of pumping funds for welfare of the poor people. Ramaraju said the Left parties were habituated to criticize Hinduism without knowing facts.

The VHP leader said the two Telugu governments spent nothing for Hinduism, but for their Chief Ministers’ publicity blitzkrieg on Pushkaralu. He alleged that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had spent Rs 1,000 crore on the welfare of Muslims and was contemplating to release Rs 5,000 crore for the development of Macca Masjid. “The Chief Minister released Rs 26 crore for the Ramzan and Ifthar parties. But the same Chief Minister released only Rs 10 crore for the Bonalu celebrated by the Hindus, who constitute 85% in the population, he said and asked the Communists and the so-called secularists whether they were not in a position to look into these facts.

Ramaraju said both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have got Rs 6,000 crore benefit from the Pushkaralu. He said not only Hindus but also people from other religions participated in the Pushkaralu. He said about 6.4 crore people in Telangana and 4.89 crore people in Andhra Pradesh had holy dip in the river Godavari during pushkaralu and every devotee spent Rs 1000 on travel fares, puja goods and food. He said overall some 11.29 crore devotees had holy dip in the river Godavari and the government got a revenue of Rs 11.3 crore.

The government received Rs.6000 crore from indirect taxes on milk, flowers, water, essential goods, petrol, diesel and others. He said the AP government received Rs 1,600 crore “kanukalu” in temple hundis in West Godavari district alone. In both AP and Telangana States, the revenue through offerings was Rs 5,000 crore through hundis. The information was received from Endowments departments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States. He said the RTC in both States, which were in heavy losses, have received good revenue and now they were on the path of profits. He demanded that both the Telugu States spend the revenue earned through Pushkaralu to spend the same on Hindu temples only.

The VHP leader warned the Communist leaders to “control their tongues” before criticizing the Hindu traditions, festivals and celebrations and see the facts. He also warned Communists that a fitting lesson will be taught if they tried to injure sentiments of the Hindus. Finding fault with MIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s statement on the punishment imposed on Memon in relation to Mumbai blasts, Ramaraju described the statement as “shameful” and demanded that the police file a criminal case against Asaduddin Owaisi under betrayal of the nation and send him to jail. (NSS)